The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-25

A Supreme Justice Tells of the Kind OF Man
the People Want
Special to the Chicago Inter Ocean.
A member of the United States Supreme
Court. who knows all prominent public men,
and who himself has often been upon the verge
of politics. talking of the political situation.
and your correspondent asked him this: what
do you think about the next presidential nom-
iuation in the two parties2" He answered: Il
am, of course, removed from the whirl and
hustle, the controversy. and turmoils of poll
tics, and always shall be; but am still an
American citizen, and see much of the peo-
pie. Names do not care to mention, but can
give you my idea as to the characteristics of the
men whom, l think, the two parties
ought to nominate in order
commend themselves most to the
American people We have been living of lnte
at q rapid pace It has been an era of initiation.
and we have drifted good deal from the moor
ings of the fathers in commerce. social life and
politics, and / believe that tho people are quite
ready to get back to simple ways and plain men,
l believe that the people think something like
this. They do not want an easy and pleasure-lov-
ing their chief magistrate. They do not
want man who will make "brilliant admins
tration," and who will bring to the White House
the manners of society, and a stud of horses a
four in hand and French cooks The common
people do not like these things in their rulers,
in the men who are counselors of their rulers.
the people, the chief executive the Cabinet
members of which are addicted TO so
much style as one sees and reads
about. matter where The farmers OF
the country, for instance, and the men
who work in the mines, know enough about a
paper hunt, and about all such trifing things
that. to know that they do not think such mat
ters are serons enough to command the atten-
tion of an administration. The people. think,
do not care to have city man In the Presiden-
tial Office. The men who have generally sue
ed in n ctlD a
ple's ranks. They have been men whose clothes
have never fitted too we'll, and who have spent
more time behind the plow than in the drawing
room City manners, IL they had them, they
acquired after they gained the presidency. or
had left it. They were men from the farm or
from the battle field. They did not possess, and
probably they scorned, many of the arts and
graces of society. They were near to the people
In their thoughts and in their lives They did
not wear kid gloves, and never drove four
in-hand, except. perhaps, before stage, a
reaping machin artillery wagon But
they could fell tree and turn furrow.
They of Drawn and gristle. They
did not turn the night into working day They
did not choose their private chums from among
anv of their old time 1.-TWO bottle" companions,
if such they had They were simple, plain. and
earnest men of tha people. early at their desks
and early in their habits, accessible, blunt
open hearted. But they would have been taken
anywhere in crowd for leaders They never
would have been mistaken anywhere for fops.
They told the truth; they had a human mpathy
with the American people: they bad struggled
ways and commanding presence; their names
touched the cords of human sympathy in the
multitude of American homes. They were men
of brains. of honor. of courage. They believed
the family .he unit of the social structure.
There was dishonor in their paths. Those
have been the characteristics of many of the
great men who have been Presidents of oue
country. If the Republican party has such a
man, he should be nominated in the convention,
and. l think, would be elected. There are such
in this country. There not too many
of them who mlngle with politics"